According to SPORT BILD information, the NDR program “Sportclub” is about to end. After more than 50 years, NDR plans to broadcast the show at the end of the year Bundesliga-Season to be discontinued in May 2025.
It would be the end of an institution!
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The show has been part of sports television for more than 50 years. On January 13, 1974, the show “Sport III” started on the third programs of NDR, Radio Bremen and SFB. Over the years it had names like “Sport 3” and “Sport im Norden” – until the title “Sports Club” was finally introduced.
The program with reports and interviews that runs on Sundays at 10:50 p.m. on NDR no longer meets the spirit of the times and the taste of a large enough audience. On Sunday, 116,000 viewers watched in the broadcast area. How NDR sports will position itself in the future is currently being discussed internally. The ARD broadcasters are all required to produce more online formats and more cost-effectively.
Former ARD presenter Valeska Homburg is now press spokesperson at Bayer Leverkusen
Photo: WITTERS
The program was put together a good 50 years ago as a reaction to the 1974 World Cup in Germany. The then NDR sports director Horst Seifert feared that football could displace other sports and designed a stage for them.
The first moderator was Fritz Klein († 77). The broadcast area at that time was Northern Germany and West Berlin. The first trailer showed a lot of athletics and swimming. The program also includes sports such as Boßeln, fistball and even pig racing. Among the guests were Uwe Seeler, Franz Beckenbauer and Günter Netzer.
Over the years, the NDR sports program has been moderated by many well-known faces: Reinhold Beckmann, Gerhard Delling, Jörg Wontorra, Alexander Bommes, Valeska Homburg and Johannes B. Kerner. The team currently consists of Martin Roschitz, Sina Braun, Ina Kast and Ben Wozny.
Sports club presenter Ina Kast with studio guest Stefan Kuntz
Photo: NDR
These sports formats were standard in all third parties for a long time: But the RBB discontinued the “Sportplatz” in 2017 after 13 years, and the WDR replaced “Sport im Westen” with the magazine “Sport inside” in 2007. BR’s “Blickpunkt Sport”, which started on April 14, 1975, will soon be the oldest sports format in ARD’s regional programs. There is “SWR Sport” on SWR: in Baden-Württemberg (formerly “Sport im Third”, since 1978) and in Rhineland-Palatinate (formerly “Floodlight”, since 1984). The HR shows the “home game”, the SR shows the “sports arena”. In “Sport in the East” the MDR focuses on live events such as the 3rd league, regional league or boxing.
